Frankfurt's Greek bankers are torn over Germany's attitude to their homeland

Greek bankers living in Frankfurt say their hearts are with Athens over euro, but their heads are with Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel has so far refused to waver from her position: that Greece must stick to the austerity measures prescribed by the EU, and that greater EU fiscal integration is not possible without political unionPhoto: AP

As an international investment manager working for a bank in Germany, finding the best financial product for his clients is Aris Athanassiadis's duty. His dream, however, is that one day that investment will be in his native Greece.

"Our fund managers have not been interested in Greek investments for years," he said. "Greece has not been allowed to grow. Whatever the result of the election, I just hope that people vote with their brains and not their anger, so that my country is given a chance."

Mr Athanassiadis is among 350,000 Greeks living in Germany, who will all be on the edge of their seats as the results of Sunday's election begin to drip through.

And no one is in any doubt that there is a huge amount at stake.

The radical Left party Syriza has vowed to rip up the bailout. Their opponents, including the New Democracy party – which is neck and neck with Syriza in final polls – warn that Syriza's policies will push Greece off a cliff, and out of the eurozone. And with that, some predict, will come the collapse of the euro.

Mr Athanassiadis, 33, is well aware of the dangers. Having lived in Germany for 11 years, much of it in the country's financial capital, Frankfurt, he admits that he has adopted a Germanic attitude to debt, duty and legality.

"As soon as I arrive at the airport in Greece, the taxi driver asks where I am from and then begins ranting about how Germany is destroying Greece," he said.

"But then I say to the taxi driver: 'Are you helping Greece? Do you pay all your taxes?' and he will look shocked and say 'Of course not!'

"That is the problem; if we Greeks can live in Germany as dutiful, law abiding citizens then why can't we do it at home?"

He said that the last time he returned home to his village of Polykastro, in the north, he made few friends "because I told it to them like it is." It is little easier for him in Germany. The Pakistani sandwich maker who delivers to his central-Frankfurt office at lunchtime offered to give him a discount because he was a suffering Greek.

At work, colleagues joke whether Greece would still have been able to play in the Euros if it had dropped out of the euro.

"I still think Angela Merkel is just doing her job," he said. "It's like a big brother telling the rebellious little brother what to do. We need a more German system – albeit one with Greek flexibility. She is right that we need to change our way of thinking."

But Mr Athanassiadis's support for the German chancellor is far from universal among Greeks living in Europe's financial centre. Athanassios Kotsopoulos is a financial lawyer, who worked in-house for a German bank before setting up his own practice, specialising in Greco-German finance.

"Angela Merkel is not being straight with her own people," he said. "She is not explaining to them how essential it is for Germany that Greece stays in the eurozone, and the whole euro does not collapse.

"She won't admit to her electorate that, at the end of the day, she will have to do anything necessary to support Greece and keep the euro alive."

Mrs Merkel has so far refused to waver from her position: that Greece must stick to the austerity measures prescribed by the EU, and that greater EU fiscal integration is not possible without political union.

She dismisses the idea of "Eurobonds" – proposed by the French president, Francois Hollande and Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister - as "counterproductive" quick fixes.

"I'm hearing that she will be forced to accept a 'European solution' – meaning a common budget, pan-European financial oversight, Eurobonds, the lot," said Mr Kotsopoulos, who believes that it is inconceivable that Greece will leave the euro.

Others are not so sure. One German economist told The Sunday Telegraph he was certain Greece would leave the single currency.

"In the short term, they may buy themselves a bit more time. But in the longer term, there's no way they can stay in the euro," he said.

In a video-conferencing room above the trading floor of Commerzbank – one of Germany's largest banks - Christoph Weil, its Greek specialist, was more diplomatic.

"The only thing I know for sure is that Monday will be a very busy day," he said. "If Greece leaves the euro, it will cost Germany 75 billion. How much will it cost to keep them in the euro? The German public is not ready to pay forever, but then is this an acceptable cost?"

The German banker, who was part of a Commerzbank team that travelled to Athens to assess the situation last year, said that Greece was in dire need of a dramatic restructuring of its public sector, which he described as "over-sized, highly inefficient and nepotistic".

"It was absolutely wrong for Greece to enter the euro," he said. "People said 'It's only a small country of 10 million people; it can't possibly destabilise the EU' – but they were mistaken.

"And now we need a solution. A banking union is not a good thing, as the very problem is structural weaknesses in the peripheral countries. Eurobonds are not a good idea – but I think they will come. A fiscal compact is a good idea – but only if all countries stick to it."

And that may be a big ask. "The only solution for Greece is a return to the drachma," said Alexis Valavanis, a Greek businessman in Frankfurt. "Then we can devalue our currency, sort ourselves out, and return to focusing on growth."

Surely his friends back in Thessaloniki cannot share his view, given that every survey shows an overwhelming majority of Greeks want to remain in the euro?

"It's only because they do not understand what is happening. The press is all controlled by Pasok and New Democracy, the parties who insist that Greece will be destroyed if we leave the euro.

"But now we have a situation where we are not free to make our own decisions and do what is right for our country."

He pulled out his mobile phone and gleefully showed The Sunday Telegraph a video of Nigel Farage, the Ukip MEP, haranguing Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU commission, and Herman Van Rompuy, EU President, for depriving people of their sovereignty.

"I am flying back to Thessaloniki on Sunday morning just to vote," he said proudly. "We live in a world where democracy has been taken away from us. My vote is the only thing left for me and I must do it for my country."

Given all the obvious patriotism among Greeks in Germany, would any of them ever go back permanently?

"They say we Greeks all have the eyes of Odysseus – always looking for a way to go home," said Aris Athanassiadis, the investment manager. "But given all the turbulence at the moment, I don't think that will be for a while yet."